


Itsy Bitsy

by Scotty1609



Series: Protocol Isty Bitsy [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Amnesia, Baby Peter Parker, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Bucky Barnes-centric, Bucky is Peter's illegal guardian, Hurt Bucky Barnes, Hurt Peter Parker, Hydra (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Kid Peter Parker, Muteness, Nick Fury Knows All, Past Brainwashing, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter-centric, Possessive Bucky Barnes, Possessive Peter, Precious Peter Parker, Protective Bucky Barnes, Selective Muteness, Unethical Experimentation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 02:11:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14226840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scotty1609/pseuds/Scotty1609
Summary: Bucky wasn't the mindless monster everyone thought the Red Room made him out to be. Yea, he didn't remember much from Before, and yea, he was a bit crazy, but he wasn't a monster. Or at least Peter didn't seem to think so. And that was enough for Bucky.Until it wasn't.AU where Peter is a child and he and Bucky are on the run from Hydra.





	Itsy Bitsy

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU I'm thinking of playing around with if it's wanted? I'm a sucker for Peter & Bucky fluff, especially kid!Peter fluff. Tell me if you want more and if you want any ships or prompts! This will (maybe/probably?) be a series of out-of-order one-shots about Peter and Bucky, but I'm interested in adding the other Avengers! (especially Steve and Sam!)
> 
> WARNINGS: mentioned past child abuse, mentioned past brainwashing, mentioned past torture, mentioned past experimentation/ experimentation of a child, PTSD, injuries, mental/emotional trauma

****The snow fell in gentle waves, individual flakes sticking to the man's eyelashes and making him blink away the liquid. He huffed, shoving his hands in his pockets and shivering slightly. Technically the cold couldn't hurt him, not anymore, but it brought along with it terrible memories of sleepless nights and syringes and blood.

A child's mirthful giggle met his ears, making the man crack a small smile. A little boy was rolling up balls of snow and stacking them up to meet his own diminutive height. A bright red nose and tiny smile were barely hidden by a deep blue scarf, once the man's and now his... charge's. The little boy hopped from foot to foot excitedly. “Buck, Buck, Buck, Buck,” he chanted happily, tiny mitted hands reaching for the man's own. “Buck!”

“Pete!” Bucky teased back, making the child wrinkle up his nose.

“Pete _r_.”

“Buck _y_.”

Peter huffed, rolled his eyes and, yea, Bucky should probably be more careful what he did around the kid. He didn't need Peter growing an attitude already at the tender age of... however old he was. The runt looked like he was three but had the intelligence of a child much older. Bucky hadn't been able to figure out how old Peter was before snatching up the boy and escaping their jointed hell. Heck, the only reason he knew Peter's name was it was the only word the child would say at the time. They had managed to expand Peter's vocabulary to limited, important words like “eat”, “drink”, “bathroom”, and the abbreviated “Buck”. It was something Bucky understood a bit more about Peter, the want- the _need_ \- to be quiet. They didn't like it much when you spoke, especially if you weren't spoken _to_. Despite his obvious intelligence, Peter chose to remain quiet most often. It had taken Bucky a whole month to get the child's name out of him, and another month to get something other than that.

 

“ _Pete, dinner?”_

“ _Peter!” Peter's vernacular spanned from saying his own name excitedly to fearfully, in varying tones and volumes. Bucky didn't mind much. Some may say it wasn't healthy for a boy his age to only know one word, but being experimented on also wasn't healthy for a boy his age, so Bucky counted Peter as being advanced enough for now. Besides, the kid was smart; he'd catch on soon. Not that his mentor's short, grunted sentences provided much prime example for grammar._

“ _Mac n' cheese,” Bucky offered as he slid a chipped bowl towards the child. “Eat up, kid.”_

_Peter dug in with vigor for the first few moments, but slowly gave pause when he realized Bucky wasn't eating. Peter looked at his bowl, looked at Bucky's empty hands. The child's face screwed up in a confused pout as he looked up into Bucky's eyes. “Peter?” he asked, and Bucky shook his head._

_Pointing a thumb at himself, Bucky said, “Bucky.”_

_Peter looked down at his bowl and then up at Bucky again, his big brown eyes searching. Then, the child pushed his bowl to Bucky and said, “Too.”_

“ _Two? You're two?”_

“ _ **Too**!” Peter insisted, pushing the bowl a bit closer to Bucky. “Buck too!”_

_Bucky looked at the half-eaten mac n' cheese, his stomach rumbling, and decided then and there that no harm would ever befall this gentle boy ever again._

 

“Buck-y?”

Peter's confused voice ripped Bucky from his thoughts. The child was looking through the thin spread of trees in the abandoned park, eyes squinting as he tried to make something out in the twilight. A fearful gasp ripped itself from the boy's lungs, and his hands instantly grabbed for Bucky's sleeve. “B-Bucky!”

The man didn't know what it was, but there was something about Peter- something They must have done to him- that made it to where the boy could sense danger from miles away. A naturally curious child- having been locked up his whole life made the entire world new and exciting- Peter was rarely scared of new things once he found out not everything in the world was out to hurt him. So when Peter _was_ scared...

Bucky lifted the child to his chest with one hand, the other going under his coat to grab the pistol at his hip. He narrowed his eyes towards the distance, trying to see whatever Peter had seen. The snow made it difficult, but Bucky could just barely make out a bald man in a black suit muttering into a watch. And his eyes were locked right on Peter.

Bucky pulled his coat to cover up the child, and the man in the trench coat started casually walking towards them. No one ever took interest in the odd man and child duo, but when they did, only trouble was brewing. There had been two cases of Them trying to take back Peter and Bucky: once breaking in while the two slept (Peter's awakening, broken shriek was still stuck in Bucky's mind), and once snatching Peter while the two were at the grocery store. Peter had used the strength They imbued in him to knock his would-be kidnapper unconscious, and then Bucky slung the kid onto his back like a baby ape and got the hell out of dodge. A third time happened where someone claiming to be from some organization or other called 'CPS' approached them at the park, saying that they wanted to help Bucky buy Peter new jeans (Peter's little trousers had a few too many holes for the winter, apparently), and then grabbed Peter's hand. The child had screamed, and Bucky knocked the man out before disappearing once more with his charge. Each time someone took interest in them, Bucky and Peter moved. They had been from Moscow to Paris and now found themselves in New York City.

Now, as the trench coat man approached them, Bucky knew they needed to leave. He zipped his jacket up around Peter, trusting the child to hold on tight, and began to walk away as quickly as he could. Suit-man sped up as they did, making Bucky curse under his breath.

Time for evasive action.

Bucky bolted.

Suit-man bolted after them, shouting into his watch and reaching for a gun. “Stop!” he called after Bucky. “Police!”

Like _hell_ was Bucky falling for that.

He turned a corner and made a running leap for a metal ladder hanging from the back staircase of an apartment complex. Peter gasped at the lurch Bucky's body gave, burrowing his face in the man's neck, but made no more noises of protest as Bucky darted up the stairs. Bounding over railings and climbing over loose bricks, Bucky made it to the roof in seconds, leaving the man in the suit in his dust. Suit-man was still shouting into his watch, code words and names that made no coherent sense in a sentence. Bucky didn't stop running long enough to try and decipher them. He needed to get back to the apartment, get their stuff, and get to a car. If he could get them to a car, they could get the fuck out of here and find a new safe-house-

Whipping, whirring noises resounded from the sky, and Bucky swore louder. Whoever these fuckers were, they had a fucking _helicopter_ on their side.

The helicopter hovered over the rooftops, following Bucky as he ran and leaped. _“James Barnes.”_ The name was familiar, but Bucky didn't care enough to try and figure out who it was. _“Stop immediately!”_ Bucky tuned out whatever else they were saying, holding Peter close to protect the child's eyes against the whipping winds of the helicopter. A flood light was turned their way, tracking them. And then there came the gunshots.

A bullet ricocheted off Bucky's metal arm. Peter screamed at the sharp noise it made, and Bucky found himself fearful for a moment- and he really didn't want to think of the implications of _that_ \- that the boy had been hit. He couldn't stop to check though. Peter healed quickly, and They were still shooting at them. The duo needed to get to the apartment. If they could get to the apartment, Bucky could get his stuff and they could run, they could leave, they could find somewhere else safe-

And then it would all start over. Again and again and again, until they died.

Bucky's footsteps faltered for a moment, just a moment- but it was long enough for a bullet to lodge itself in his calf. He grunted, grit his teeth, and jumped off the roof of a building. Peter whined as Bucky tuck-and-rolled, shielding the boy's head with his hands. Blood trickled down his calf, and he found himself unable to run anymore.

“ _James Barnes!”_ -and whoever these people were, they seemed to think _he_ was this 'James Barnes' person- _“Stop! We're here to help-”_

“Like hell you are!” Bucky snarled, dipping into another alleyway and dodging the helicopter's floodlight long enough to drop through a manhole cover and into the sewers. He winced at the fall, knees jarred and pain flaring up through his leg at the motion of standing. He swayed for a moment- had the bullet hit an artery? How much was he bleeding? Most importantly, had Peter been hit?- and then continued on through the sewers.

After jogging for about a half hour- now increasingly light-headed and swaying at every step- Bucky decided they were far enough away to slow down.

“B-Buck!” Peter wailed as Bucky came to a stop. “Buck hurt! Buck hurt!”

“M'fine, Pete,” Bucky slurred, shaking his head to clear it. The bullet couldn't have hit an artery, otherwise he would have bled out a while ago, but he was getting weak. They needed to get back to the apartment _yesterday_ so he could get to the first aid kit. “You okay, kid?”

“Peter good! Peter good!” And Bucky _knew_ Peter wasn't 'good'- no kid could be 'good' after all he had been through- but at least the child wasn't bleeding or ridden with bullet holes. That was a mission well accomplished for Bucky. “House? House? House?”

“Yea, Petey, we're goin' to the house.” Bucky tapped Peter's nose once. “Face down, kid. We're about to go up-top.” Bucky had no idea where they were, he was bleeding out fast, Peter was panicking, and entering the sewer had probably _not_ been a top-notch idea, but at least it had gotten them away from Them.

It took a bit more effort than Bucky would rather admit to climb up the rungs out of the sewer. By the time they reached the streets, the man was panting shallowly. Something must have been in that bullet. A tranquilizer, perhaps. If it really was Them, then They knew about his metabolism and medicinal resistance. They had to have done something to the bullet- tranq, poison, nano-something or other- to slow him down.

Bucky and Peter had gone west when they needed to go south to get back to their apartment, so Bucky hefted the boy up higher on his chest- Peter's arms still glued around his neck and legs around his torso- and began the ten mile trek back to their apartment.

He was only half-conscious by the time they got there. Peter hopped down from Bucky's arms and dug around the man's pockets for the key to the window where the two slipped in-

And were promptly ambushed.

Bucky fought. Oh god did he fight. But they grabbed Peter- the boy shrieking at the top of his lungs and kicking and flailing before one of them wrapped him up in a blanket, leaving just his little face free to breathe- and then kicked his calf, socked his jaw, and shocked his stomach with a taser. He fell to his knees, rasping frantically for air as the panic and pain set in.

“P-Pete!” Bucky shouted, the cry broken by his mind swimming for purchase. “You- you hurt him, n' I'll skin you 'live...”

“You aren't in the position to be making any demands, Barnes.”

There was a man with a trench coat and eye-patch peering down at him, arms resting casually behind his back. The suit man from earlier- the fucker that had shot his leg- was speaking into his watch again, something about a Captain and a spider and a package being delivered. And then the one word that the man spoke rang through Bucky's ears.

_Hydra._

It was Them.

“Itsy Bitsy!” Bucky shouted at the top of his lungs, praying to any deity out there that Peter could hear him. Eye-patch guy cocked an eyebrow at the words, but right before he could say anything there came a furious high-pitched squeal. The sound of flesh knocking against flesh echoed through the apartment, and the agent holding Peter fell to the floor unconscious. Peter sprang from his bonds like a child gone mad, kicking out and punching like Bucky had trained him. He leaped up a bound that no child should be able to make and stuck to the ceiling upside down like a baby bat, screaming incoherently at the agents around him. And then he dropped down from the ceiling with a flip, coming to stand in front of Bucky with his tiny fists raised.

“ _Mine_.”

Bucky smirked. Peter was a possessive little shit, that was for sure. Then again, so was Bucky.

They were all each other had.

Eye-patch guy and suit man seemed impressed, but not surprised. “Your friend is hurt,” Eye-patch man reasoned out with the child.

“Hurt?” Peter faltered for a second, but steeled back up quickly.

“He's bleeding, see?”

“Hurt Buck!” Peter shouted, kicking fruitlessly at the man. He was too far away to do any damage.

“Sorry.” The man didn't sound sorry. He crouched down onto one knee, tilting his head to inspect Peter. “You can't take care of him on your own.”

Peter fidgeted, eyes watering and lower lip pouting. Shit. Itsy Bitsy rarely worked when Bucky was hurt; Peter was only a child after all, just out of his toddler years. He could only handle so much, even for a super-powered kid.

“Let us help,” Eye-patch man offered Peter a hand.

Be it innocence or hope, Peter was a trusting child for all he had been through. It was a habit Bucky had wanted to break him of, but didn't have the heart to. The world was cruel and cold, and They were everywhere, but Peter deserved to make friends on the playground and other kid shit like that, and it that took at least a tiny bit of trust. Besides, Bucky couldn't bear the idea of Peter not trusting _him_.

It was moments like now that Bucky wished he _had_ broken Peter of his trusting phase.

Bucky barely got out a weak cry of “Pete-” before Peter took the man's hand. Eyes rolling into the back of his head, Bucky fell back against the floor.

Right before he lost consciousness, he heard Eye-patch guy say, “Sergeant Barnes, welcome to the Avengers Initiative.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!! This is a finished one-shot but I may add a sequel if you guys want!


End file.
